The Pomona Valley Model Airplane Club (PVMAC) is an AMA Gold Leader Club that operates as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and enjoyment of R/C model airplane flying. The club is composed of approximately 400 members.

Our clubs field is located in Prado AirPark in Chino, California. The Prado field runway is approximately '800’ x 50’ with enough asphalt pit area to support 30 canopies and features unobstructed flying in all directions. You must either be a PVMAC member or be an AMA member and have obtained a $10 day pass at the prado field to fly there. A 400' flying ceiling is strictly enforced and a fire extinguisher is required.

Pomona Valley Model Airplane Club

PVMAC Scale Fun Fly Event::April 13-15 2018

Published on Tuesday, 23 January 2018 01:22

The Pomona Valley Model Airplane Club will be hosting our first event of 2018, the PVMAC SCALE FUN FLY, which will and held at the Prado Air Park in Chino, CA. The Event will be held on Friday April 13th through Sunday April 15th. Both military and civilian scale aircraft are welcome, sorry no Turbines. The Pilot Landing fee is a reasonable $25.00 and includes lunch on Saturday. Event flying will be held on Saturday Only, and open flying will be Friday and Sunday, but if your not a member of the club, the $25 Landing fee buys you in all weekend, (AMA required). This is the first scale flying event at to be hosted by the PVMAC in nearly 3 years, and we encourage everyone to come out for the camaraderie and fun, and show your support.

We will be trying something new for the pilot Raffle also. To encourage as much flying as possible, we will be handing out a raffle ticket every time you fly. The more you fly, the better your chances of winning. This has worked really well at other clubs events, so we though we would give it a try. In addition to the pilot raffle, there will also be a best of class awards for WWI, WWII, EDF Jet, Civilian, and Multi-Engine Aircraft!

Prado Field Closure Sat January 27 and Sun January 28, 2018

Published on Thursday, 18 January 2018 17:28

The San Bernardino County Parks Department is hosting a Mud Run at the Prado Park and surrounding area. They will be parking 1500 cars in the field North of the runway. For this reason, the field will be closed Saturday January 27, 2018 and Sunday January 28, 2018.

Thank you for your cooperation Your 2018 Board of Directors

July 2017 Meeting Recap

Published on Friday, 14 July 2017 18:15

Chuck started the meeting off by cautioning everyone about Wild Boar, and showed Pictures that board member Larry marsh took. The boar looked to be over 250 plus lbs, and it was reported that they hide out in the river bed, and between the field and SC village. Chuck shared a story about a guy that encountered one and decided to take a shot with an AR-15 rifle he had on him. It only made the boar mad and chased him up a tree. They guy had a 9mm pistol with him and unloaded it in the boar from up the tree. The boar eventially died, but not right away, even though he was shot many times. So be warned, these animals are not to be messed with.

Good and bad news from the Chino tower. The tower had a report of a drone; Pilot reported it the drone was flying at 1800 feet southbound, good news is it was not us, and the Tower knows it.

There was a rumor FedEx was trying to move into Chino airport, which would be bad news for our field because it would reclassify the airspace. But it sound like this rumor is not true and they are trying to move into a building near by as a ground transportation facility only.

There has been a couple conspicuous visitors taking measurements and doing som survey work, Ted Novak confronted one of them. It was a guy from the county doing a survey. The Duck people apperently want to expand their operation, going west towards the 71, though it should not affect us. Chuck had a conversation with our contact at the county, but she didn’t know anything about it.

Reminder, there is Pattern event and swap meet Oct 7th, We will be publicizing in AMA mag.

Chuck also wanted to bring up a point, because of an issue that we had a couple weeks ago. There is only 1 group who can have a Sanctioned event and that is the PVMAC leadership. Just because you are a member, you cannot host an event at the field. You must be sanctioned not only by the AMA, but you it must be a PVMAC Sanctioned event. In addition, Chino Parks and Rec will only let us camp at our field when there is a PVMAC sanctioned event. And again, the only people that can Sanction an event is the PVMAC Board.

Joe Velasquez brought in his 80mm Freewing A10 that he bought at Motion RC. He put on all the decals on first, then assembled it to make it easier. Joe flew it 2 times, says its an unbelievable flier, no flaps needed. He gets about 3.5 minutes of mixed throttle flying and it lands like a trainer. He cuts the throttle, and it just floats in. They have a 90mm engine if oyu want to add more power. Runs on 2x 6s5000 , he has 4 sets of batteries, you can do the math on that. He could not say enough about the flight characteristics. He didn’t have to modify anything, and it went together perfectly. The gear ihas been fixed. Has blinking lights. Has 1 plug that handles all the wing connections. The cost was $549, and the cost has gone up to $599.

Lonnie brought in a gigantic 30% World models Steermen ARF with a 116" wingspan. It took 3 people to get it out of his 8x12’ shop. He was worried that it wouldn’t fit in his trailer, but it did…barely. He wants to fly it in scale this year or next. All the hardware has been changed. Steel cables were switched out to stainless. Fasteners were changeg. Lonnie says, You have to have the flying wires to fly, and you cannot disassemble it, as the wires are the only thing holding the wings on. It weights 47 LBs dry. He put a DA120 with smoke pump and fuel pump, it calls for a 90-100. He has not flown it yet. It wet together well and says its not real acrobatic airplane. Lonnie flew one at castle, and fell in love. There are 4 sets of batteries, and an added 2.5 lbs of lead to balance. A 12 channel receiver is being used, and every channel is used with all the control surfaces.

Mark Hibbert brought in an old starter and built a lipo battery and glow plug ignighter carrier that is fully self contained. He plugged in a 14v 4s battery .Took 2 days to build.

And Finally, How many rc pilots does it take to fit Lonnies plane through a door? The Photos are the punchline here....

June 2017 Club Meeting Recap

Published on Wednesday, 12 July 2017 00:42

Its been a while since an update has been made here on the website, but each month the club is updated at our Monthly club meeting which takes place on the second Tuesday of every month. So we thought it best to inform everyone on our website of what transpired at the latest club meeting

Here is a breif recap of the June 2017 meeting.

Club Membership is at 315 as of June with 23 members in attendance for June.

Chuck talked about the field inspection that competed by the County of San Bernardino and overall it went well. and breifly touched on the Property tax bill.

Chuck reminded all members that they should be careful and watch for snakes. A couple have been spotted in the area so be on alert.

Chuck spoke about people shooting guns near the field and about vandalism at the field. Everyone should be on the lookout and report anything suspiscious.

Chuck reported that a new contract has been signed with the City of Chino for the Club meetings building.

We gave away 9 cash prizes totalling $250 , and Greg Stockdale won the big $75 prize and Joni won the $36 50/50 Prize.

John Maxwell brought in his new ME 262 from Motion RC, and talked about how great it flies...(update...John Crashed this ME262 at the field a couple weeks ago, insisst it was not pilot error.)

Randy Wilbur Brought in some Plastic models he bought from the Hobby People Close out and talked about how great they are for researchning scale details for RC planes.

Classic Pattern & Swap Meet Saturday October 7

Published on Friday, 23 June 2017 04:26

The PVMAC will be holding a Classic Pttern event taking place on saturday, October 7th. There will be an optional date of Sunday October 8th if it rains Saturday. This event is only $20 to enter and is a great way to get into the sport. We will plan on a 4 round contest

A pancake breakfast and hamburger/hotdog lunch will be served.

A classic Pattern contest brings back competition of the 1970's and 1980's. Many of the participants will even fly with airplanes, radios and engines of the era - although this does not help with the scores.Almost any 40 - 60 size airplane glow or electric is allowed to fly in the Pre-Novice and Novice classes. Advanced and Expert classes, we like to see an airplane more of the era. There are a couple ARF's that you can buy today, the most popular is probably the Tower Kaos 60 and 40. We are looking for a style of flying, one maneuver at a time as indicated on the "call card". Can you fly a straight line? Can you roll? How about a loop - or 3 loops. Classic Pattern Association (www.classicpatternassociation.com) is a site you might want to look at. There is a membership fee of $15.00 a year but membership is not required to join our event. The site will also have the "call cards" as well as a written description of the maneuvers.Give Classic Pattern a try!You probably already have an airplane you can enter.

You will be asked to spot for the next pilot after your round - a lookout for full-scale aircraft.

Field closed to open flying. AMA sanction received.

May 2016 Club Meeting Recap

Published on Thursday, 26 May 2016 23:49

There is no New information on the FAA front. Chuck talked to the tower, and they said that they did receive 2 calls from pilots asking permission to fly. The Tower cannot tell them they cannot fly, they can only advise them. The tower advised them that they were too close and should not fly there. Chuck asked the tower to forward them to the PVMAC, and we will encourage them to join the club.

Steve Gamble has Stepped down from the board. The Club would like to thank Steve not only for for his help and support as a board member for the last 2.5 years, but also for his help and contuned support over the years. As long as I've been a member, Steve has alwasy been there lending a hand at the club events by manning the grill, setting up or tearing down and assisting at club meetings.

John Maxwell was coerced asked by the board to Join the board in his place, and John Accepted, thank you John for stepping up.

Jim Stout, another board member is moving to Texas in the next month. He is employed with Toyota, which is moving from Irvine to Plano Texas.

We currently have 345 members, we received 2 new members that were kids, 16 and under which is great.

The Barbwire fence is going to be fixed in lieu of fixing the potholes in the road. The Road will eventually be fixed, but the fence is the priority at the moment.

Cal state Fullerton is coming down to the club to fly their experimental airplane on May 11th. The Professor is a member of the AMA and FAA.

Chuck will be meeting with Chino PD this week to discuss some riot control training that they want to do on the property with CS gas.

Board member Larry Marsh was hit with Ugly Stick…. Ted Novak’s Plane , the Ugly stick crash landed in the pits 2 feet away from Larry, hit His table, which took the wings off, and stopped short of the truck buy just a couple feet.

3 minutes later… Steve Berman almost crashed his plane into Larry also, missed him by just a few feet. Larry said to never turn your back to the runway, and keep your eyes and ears open, you never know what might come your way.

George Pollards brought in his Top Flight Piper Arrow II, They had 2 versions, one with a stabilator and one with a T Tail. The tail control is all internal and very challenging to build. The landing gear are scale for that specific kit made by Robart. He added the cockpit kit, with carpet, upholstery, gauges and throttle. It has an 81” wingspan. It was planked and glassed by Steve Berman. It weighs 18 lbs, it has 9 servos on a JR system. It doesn’t come with lighting, so that was added. It has a Saito 91 4 stroke which sounded underpowered to some, but George said this design flies off the wing, so never over power it and it will fly very scale.

Mark Hibbert brought in a Global ARF Sky raider that he is doing a complete remodeling of-, that is he removed the film, added retracts, then added more details with exhaust pipes, Magnum 70. He flared the tail to be more scale using with floral foam and lightweight spackle. He also added missiles and bombs, with styrene. He relocated the tail wheel. Added air deflectors, radio gear, and he still adding more details. It weighs 6.5 lbs. He will cover it in coverite, lightweight primer and a camo water based paint, with a polyurethane finish. He has 6 months of building to do before it’s done.

The following won some cash…George Pollard Won $50Larry Marsh won $15Greg Stockdale $15Jim Stout Won $25Jim Silver won $25Larry Rain Won $25Charles Snear won $75Tom Marcure won $15Joe Aguino won $25John Rossen won $15

April 2016 Club Meeting Recap

Published on Friday, 06 May 2016 23:59

Chuck started the meeting Membership is about 340 members.

We recently lost Terry Strunk and Wallace Henrie, both PVMAC members, Fellow RC Pilots, avid modelers and great well respected guys. (Photo of Wallace Henry with his VQ P-39 Below, Right)

There was an email floating around that said 2 fields had ben visited by the feds, and fines were issued, and one field was closed. Chuck talked to one of the presidents of the club, and he reports that the pilots were issued warnings, but not fines and the field was not closed.

Chuck asked that each member please be registered as a pilot with the FAA, and asked that each member make sure that others are registered at the field. He is afraid that if the feds show up and we have a bunch of pilots not registered, that they could shut us down. There was some discussion over if they have the right to close a field, but were not sure we want to be the first to find out.

Chuck talked about a club he visited in Florida. Where you had to open the gate by disconnect and reconnect electrical wires, which are used to keep out the gatorsand wild boars away from the field.

Chuck Contacted the AMA again to see if they had re-considered their membership new imposing membership year round policy, but they were not getting back to him. There was a great deal of discussion around this new policy and how the files would police the member at the field. There were discussions about using solar powered card readers to solve the problem of policing the field and making sure that each member was current.

Another idea was brought for to use Different colored badges for those that renew with the AMA mid year, thus we would only have to check those folks every time they fly. Those numbers would be a lot less. Everyone else would be business as usual.

The contract for the field with the city and army core of engineers has not been renewed yet by the city.

Larry Marsh talked about Weed spraying, which was done last in March and in April they did a touch up. Road Flags have been replaced, 1300 ft worth.

For Show and Tell

Paul Smith brought in his Lady Alice P-51 by VQ models. That balanced out perfectly. He found that the rudder pushrod was sliding. It is 7lbs total with It does like to ground loop, but it flies very well for a warbird.

Randy Wilbur brought in his SBD with the pneumatic retracts in and the bomb glued in. But he realized that once he glued the bomb in, he could not get to the screws that secure the servo for the center wing flap is at. He figured out how to work around it with a special latch cover. He had to do some lathe work to get the prop spinner to work with the engine he has. (Photo of Randy at bottom)

John Maxwell brought in his older, but never flown Yak 55 By BH models that he won at an auction at a club. It has a OS 160 pumper, that was built by Steve and Lonny at hobby club USA. It has full digital servos with a glow ignition system. John plans on flying at the Scale Master qualifier at Gilman Springs. It came with a plastic spinner that was replaced with a true turn spinner. Yak 55 Update: The airplane flew great on it maiden on May 2nd , and John was doing loops and rolls before the flight was over.

Philip Passmore won $15 Larry Marsh won $75Daniel Miller won $25Carlos won $25Bill sheets won $15Larry Pall won $15Paul Smith won $50Joseph won $25Ted Novak won $15Steve Bloom Won $25

PVMAC Members Placed 1st and 2nd at Scale Master Qualifier

Published on Thursday, 28 April 2016 05:52

The Southern California Scale Masters Qualifier this year was hosted by the Gilman Springs RC Flying Club. There were 5 PVMAC members in attendance doing their best to demonstrate their flying skills to the judges and qualify for the US Scale Masters 2016 Championships. Two PVMAC Members, who both recently joined The PVMAC did extremely well. Carl Lindou (Photo-Right) took 1st place in the ProAm Sportsman class, with his yellow J3 Cub with a 12' wingspan and a DLA 58cc engine. Eddie Ayala (Photo-Left) also did will and took seconds with his CAP 232, that is modelled after a Matt Chapmans Airplane that he took Bronze in the world Aerobatic Championships and led the US team to a Silver Medal in 1998. They both qualified to move on to the US Scale Masters 2016 Championships that are being held at the Woodland- Davis RC Field, in Davis, California this September 28-October 2nd. If you see them at the field, be sure to welcome them to the club and congradulate them on their performance at the 2016 Socal Scale Master qualifier.

John Maxwell, Randy Wilber and Tom Callahan also competed in the ProAm Sport Class, and although they did well, it was not enough to take the 3rd spot in the class.

The Pro-am sportsman class and even the Pro-am Pro class for that matter is a great level to start competing at, because they allow ARFs and there is no requirement to build the model from scratch, and no expecation or requirement to detail it at all, or modify it it any way. In fact it doesn't even have to be expensive or large either. Several competitors were using inexpensive foamie airplanes to compelte, incuding the Dynam Hellcat flown by John Maxwell, as well as a foam BF110, and a small foam dehavilland beaver were in the mix and all did quite well. For the documentation portion, you are only required to bring a photo showing there is a real airplane that your plane is modeled after, to get the full 5 points for that part of the competition. At the higher levels of competion, you do compete on the scale look, fine details and building of the aircraft, and must provide extensive documentation, in additoon to the flying portion of the competion.

The other reason this is a great place to start competing at is because your competing with some basic flying manuvers your probably already familiar with and are probably already doing, such as an aileron roll, chandelle, procedure turn and loop. These are scale aircraft doing scale manuvers. You are judged on precision, placement, and realism of 10 manuvers, 3 of which are required; takeoff, the figure 8 and landing. You choose 7 other scale manuvers that you feel comfortable with and are considderd scale manuvers for the particular aircraft your flying. Some manuvers sound quite easy, but can be quite difficult, especially in the wind. Even a manuver as simple as a fly past at 10-20' keeping the airplane straight and parallel to the runway, ensuring wings are level throughout, and the elevation consistant throughout the entire pass proves to be difficult to execute perfectly, especially in 10mph wind. But that is what the competition is about, and its fun, and challenging. Flying in front of judges can be intimidating at first to say the least, however they put my mind at east right from the start, and gave me plenty of pointers before and after each flight. And the other competitors were also helpful in guiding us newbies through the process so by the end of the 1st day we were much more comfortable. You can download the rules here.

It was great of Gilman Springs RC Club to host this years qualifier, and from the sound of it, future qualifiers will be hosted there. If you have never been to Gilman Springs RC club, it is a fantastic place to fly, only about 50-55 minutes deive from the PVMAC Field near Hemet, and will soon be getting better. They have a great facility with un-obstructed flying, Covered Pit area, Electricity at each station for your chargers, an a clubhouse that features a flushing toilet and running water. The only down-side to the field is the runway, which is badly in need of repair. There were a few mishaps and damaged aircraft due to the runway. But the president of the club, Mike Stone, assured everyone that next year the runway will be as good as new. This years Socal Scalemaster Qualifier generated enough money, that they will be donating about $500 to the Gilman Springs RC club that will go towards resurfacing the runway.

Needless to say, we all had a great time, and I know I'll definately be doing it again, and I hope to see more of our members participating at competitions and fly-ins.